Fanticola, Blingismything Head Royal Heroine

Graded stakes-placed Fanticola and graded stakes winner Blingismything head a field of 10 in the $200,000 Royal Heroine Stakes (gr. IIT) June 27 at Santa Anita Park.

Beaten a nose and a neck in her last two races, Fanticola, trained by Phil D'Amato, will attempt to return to winning form in the Royal Heroine for fillies and mares going a mile on the turf. Her last victory came in the Jan. 17 Megahertz Stakes at the same distance on the Santa Anita lawn. 

Second in the April 18 Santa Barbara Handicap (gr. IIIT) to fellow Royal Heroine contender Queen of The Sand, Fanticola was beaten a neck in her most recent outing, the grade I Gamely, when East Coast invader Hard Not to Like scraped along the rail to nail her on the wire May 25.

Owned by Anthony Fanticola and Joseph Scardino, the 5-year-old mare by Silent Name   has two wins, a second, and a third at the distance. She departs post 7 under jockey Joe Talamo.

Graded stakes winner Blingismything was a close third in the Gamely after sitting second throughout, beaten only three quarters of a length. She gained her first graded stakes victory two races back when going a mile on the turf in the Wilshire (gr. IIIT) on April 26.

Trained by Eric Kruljac and owned by Class Racing Stable, Blingismything's last four races have all been in graded stakes at Santa Anita including a third-place finish four races back in the Feb. 16 Buena Vista (gr. IIT) and another third in the April 11 Las Cienegas (gr. IIT) April 11.

Like Fanticola, Blingismything has two wins, a second and a third from four tries at the Royal Heroine distance. She will leave the inside post with Tyler Baze in the irons.

A winner of four out of her past six races, Doug O'Neill's front-running Birdlover comes into Saturday off a win in her most recent race, the May 22 Mizdirection Stakes run at 6 1/2 furlongs down the hillside turf course. Mike Smith has the mount from the 4 hole.

The Royal Heroine goes as the eighth of 10 races Saturday, and is the event before the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita Stakes (gr. I). Approximate post time for the Royal Heroine is 4:30 p.m. local time. All runners carry 119.